With 100,000 reported dead in Burma (Myanmar) from Cyclone Nargis, survivors need YOUR help, RIGHT NOW, so that more lives will not be lost.

Sami Al Hajj, 37 years old, father of a young son, Sudanese national, al-Jazeera photojournalist, having been illegally imprisoned at the Guantanamo prison camp for over five years, was released by US authorities on Thursday, May 1.

"Aside from the fact that Guantanamo Bay is a legal and humanitarian scandal, the Americans seem to be holding Al-Hajj simply because they have it in for Al-Jazeera. How else can you explain the fact that he has been held for four years without being charged while other journalists have been cleared and released in no time at all ?" (Reporters Without Borders, May 2007.)

One year ago, on April 7, 2007, 17-year-old Dua Khalil was pulled into a crowd of young men, some of them (the instigators) family, who then kicked and stoned her to death. This is an example of the breath-taking oxymoron "honor killing," in which a family member (almost always female) is murdered for a religious or ethical transgression.

Dua Khalil, who was of the Yezidi faith, had been seen in the company of a Sunni Muslim, and suspected of having married him or converted. That she was torturously murdered for this is not, in fact, a particularly uncommon story. But you can watch this on video (and much of the world did). As the girl was on the ground trying to get up, her face nothing but red, the few in the group of more than twenty men who were not busy kicking her and hurling stones at her were filming the event with their camera phones.

. . . and because it is my heart. -- Stephen Crane

I don't know about y'all, but the images and voices from Hurricane Katrina haunt me. Although I was "lucky" in having moved from my hometown, New Orleans, four years before Katrina, it's still impossible to come to terms with the anger (well  . . . maybe rage would be more accurate) and shame that have seared my soul.

It's hard to fathom that this is America, even though more than two years have passed. Aren't we the most generous nation in the world? I remember the Indian Ocean tsunami. I remember September 11. But I remember this:

And contributions poured in from around the world. What wasn't tied up in bureaucratic red tape was outright turned away. Failure to properly distribute donations, that's not much of a surprise. Failure of compassion and humanity? That's the real thorn in my side.

Please note this humble story contains images of graphic violence. In fact, I consider them atrocities. In any event, the images and text in this diary may not be appropriate for children of any age.

March 19 is a day that I, like many of you, will never forget. It was on this day five years ago the U.S. invaded Iraq. Still we remain, in defiance of the majority of Americans who voted against Bush and against war; in contemptuous disregard of the international communities, the countries that were our strongest allies; even in our own Congress, George Bush's will be done, forever and ever, amen.
1125 days.

Dios mio, Senator Clinton. How I admired you as a young girl. You were my role model, yes: A strong, unafraid, fiercely independent woman whose great compassion, intellect and accomplishment inspired me as a teenager to never allow being female to make me feel secondary; to have perseverance in all things worth trying to achieve, no matter how improbable; most importantly, to find ways to turn a disadavantage into an advantage.

Believing I could set high goals for myself and meet or exceed them, as you showed me, by example, was not only possible, but a matter of determination; for this, I owe you a debt of gratitude. I ran track in high school and set new marks for achievement, made The National Honor Society, became a Big Sister, volunteered for community service and spent my weeknights reading to the elderly and writing letters for people whose understanding of English was limited.

So how did we get to this impasse? How did we come to a point that I, one of your biggest fans, feel nothing but pity, disdain and embarrassment for you? How did you lose my vote, my hours of volunteer work, my every-payday-like-clockwork contributions?

Instead of allowing this President - or any President - to decide what does and does not constitute torture, we could have left the definition up to our own laws and to the Geneva Conventions, as we would have if we passed the bill that the Armed Services committee originally offered.

Instead of detainees arriving at Guantanamo and facing a Combatant Status Review Tribunal that allows them no real chance to prove their innocence with evidence or a lawyer, we could have developed a real military system of justice that would sort out the suspected terrorists from the accidentally accused.

And instead of not just suspending, but eliminating, the right of habeas corpus - the seven century-old right of individuals to challenge the terms of their own detention, we could have given the accused one chance - one single chance - to ask the government why they are being held and what they are being charged with.

--Senator Barack Obama, statement to Senate floor, October 5, 2006. on S. 3930, Military Commissions Act of 2006, which approved US torture of detainees and strips Constitutional rights away from detainees.

Growing up in New Orleans, the only child of an immigrant family, I realized at a very young age that I was blessed to be a citizen of the greatest nation in the world. My father's great love of America, and faith that America stood as a beacon for freedom, security and economic opportunity were expressed not only in words.

As a teenager, my cousins and I were dispatched to Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and other Latin American countries on our summer vacations to help with humanitarian lay ministries, and to "give back" to communities less fortunate than our own. Of course, we complained about it. We wanted to spend summers with our friends, swimming, dancing, having fun -- not another summer of being eaten alive by mosquitos while teaching children the alphabet, reading to the elderly, scrubbing floors and baking bread.

Monday, March 19, 2003 was a day that I, like many of you, will never forget. It was on this day five years ago the U.S. invaded Iraq. Still we remain, in defiance of the majority of Americans who voted against Bush and against war; in contemptuous disregard of the international communities, the countries that were our strongest allies; even in our own Congress, George W. Bush's will be done, forever and ever, amen.

The United States occupies Iraq in the way cancer occupies a human body. From the massive airstrikes of the "shock and awe" campaign to this very day, the United States has violated Iraq. In 2003, we used napalm in targeted civilian airstrikes. In Fallujah in 2004, we "burned the village to save it."  

When and how will our troops leave Iraq?

Make no mistake about it: We are at war. We're at war with Iraq. We're at war with Afghanistan. We're at war with each other, and at war with a noun. We're a nation divided and intimidated by an abusive leader, and those we should trust to protect us are the very people we fear. We have become a pariah to more civilzed nations. In a very real sense, we have collective emotional battered spouse syndrome.

Aren't you tired of it? I know I am.

In an earlier diary, CIA torture flightlogs now available, the amazing smintheus posted an important update to Germans documented American torture in 2001.

If you consider documentation of the CIA's kidnapping flightlogs a smoking gun, I'm in complete agreement.

We thought we knew about rendition; a nice word for kidnapping.  Until Stephen Grey's Ghost Plane: The True Story of the CIA Torture Program, did we know that thousands of individuals have been flown away to be tortured at CIA black sites around the world, with the full knowledge of the U.S. Government and in the name of the American people?

The damning truth is on the front page of today's Washington Post.  The suspicions of many human rights activists have now been documented by the CIA flightlogs.

Who will be next?

With such a wealth of talent among this year's diarists, I can't think of a single person mentioned so far whom I actually wouldn't want to see promoted to the Front Page.  By tradition, five diarists are chosen by Kos after our nominations.  This year, especially, five doesn't seem like enough, but I have a candidate or ten in mind and want to hear about your recommendations as well.

What makes a diarist a front pager, besides Kos?  I'm not sure what the secret ingredient is, but I want someone who's knowledgeable on the issues, bright and articulate, innovative and personable.  Someone who's a lot like our current front pagers.

Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) has a problem with the Military Commissions Act of 2006.  Most likely, you feel the same way that he does.  Tell me whether or not you agree.

"I take a backseat to no one when it comes to protecting this country from terrorists," Sen. Dodd said. "But there is a right way to do this and a wrong way to do this. It's clear the people who perpetrated these horrendous crimes against our country and our people have no moral compass and deserve to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. But in taking away their legal rights, the rights first codified in our country's Constitution, we're taking away our own moral compass, as well."

Is there a better way than the MCA?  Damn skippy.  We lost rule of law and the Magna Carta so The Decider could continue to get his torture fetish on.  Bad, bad business.

Brief summary of the few known facts about Ahmed Qusai al-Taayie, then some info pending verification.

• Army Reservist Ahmed Qusai al-Taayie, age 42, was abducted on October 23 when he left the Green Zone.
• Al-Taayie was born in Iraq, but moved to the US as a teenager.  His MOS is translator.
• Altaie was at "a relative's home when three cars pulled up to the residence," U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said last week. "The hostage-takers handcuffed him and forced him into one of their vehicles."

President Bush done a heck of a job, to be sure.  The War Crimes Act makes any violation of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions a crime under federal law.

Since the Supreme Court said the Administration wrongfully denied these Geneva Conventions protections to those detained in Guantanamo Bay and similar detention facilities, Administration officials could face prosecution under the War Crimes Act.

Haynes update below, befitting the botton feeder who aspired to be the Torture Judge.

The American Psychological Association (APA) issued the following press release on 10 August 2006.

New Orleans - The Council of Representatives of the American Psychological Association (APA) has approved a resolution reaffirming the organization's absolute opposition to all forms of torture and abuse, regardless of the circumstance. The resolution furthermore affirmed United Nations human rights documents and conventions as the basis for APA policy.

[...]
"It is not enough for us to express outrage or to codify acceptable practices. As psychologists, we must use every means at our disposal to prevent abuse and other forms of cruel or degrading treatment," said Gerald P. Koocher, PhD, President of the APA.

Quite a contrast from Dr. Koocher's "dead wrong" on torture response six weeks ago to a petition by members of the APA which called for an unequivocal end to psychologists' participation in detainee interrogations.

Guest-posted for the one and only buhdydharma . . .

One of the most impressive things about YOU, fellow Kossaks, is the breadth of knowledge YOU have accumulated. Smarts spanning from aardvarks to ZyXel.  If you ask a question on Dkos, ANY question, it WILL be answered`at the very least with a link or a clue. We have 'columns' on the Environment, gardening, painting, history. Heck we've even got group therapy, storytime and...and...well..whatever the hell you want to call the glorious chaos that is Cheers & Jeers. There also seems to be quite an interest in animal husbandry here for some reason, some animals even write diaries!! And of course, the one The Only PhillyGal pooties!!! whose groundbreaking work someone on this site seems to have domeneched into some kind of nefarious notoriety.

Human rights advocates have long suspected a link between interrogations in the "war on terror" and a secretive military survival school that trains elite U.S. troops to resist torture.

Jane Mayer explored the evidence of a connection between the Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape school at Fort Bragg, N. C., and real-world interrogators in a July 2005 piece for the New Yorker.

The Torture School curriculum and Mohammad al-Kahtani's torture records, obtained through an ACLU FOIA request, are another damning indictment against the Waterboarding Administration.  

How is this any different than what we knew?  The fact that SERE teaches "interrogation techniques" (what you and I would call torture) to be used on detainees is new and it's appalling.